Pope Francis

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

I had a dream a few nights ago. In it I was walking alone as evening was approaching. I had walked a couple hundred yards when I came upon a dark forest and stood at it's edge. There was an array of fears going through me. What would I encounter in the darkness? What was awaiting me as daylight faded? I heard a noise in the brush and then I saw a wolf approaching. He was beautiful with gray blueish eyes. Even though he was not aware of my presence, I reached down and found a small limb from a tree and threw it at him, he backed off and walked away. At that point I woke up not knowing the outcome of our encounter. As I lay in bed I thought of this image of the dark forest. It is as primordial an image as there is. Fear is as much a part of our humanity as any other emotion. Those woods represent to me the spiritual journey that I am on. You see the woods are really not any different at night than during the day. Our inner selves are often kept in darkness, along with all the things we fear - death, salvation, security, changing world, disappointments, and failure. We have walked a few hundred yards in our journey this Lent, we are now at the edge of our own little dark woods. This is a time when many of us abandon the trip. We are content to stand still at the edge, fearful of what we may encounter. Christ invites us into that darkness. He already knows what faces us. He knows that we have at times rejected Him, we have chose the pleasures and temptations of this world, we have chose our selves tossing aside our crosses. He knows that the woods are no different at night than during daylight. He has journeyed there not unlike all of us but He still beckons us, for to clear the woods is to find the path to Calvary and to the Eternal Light.